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        <a href="netCDF4-module.html">Module&nbsp;netCDF4</a> ::
        Class&nbsp;Variable
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<!-- ==================== CLASS DESCRIPTION ==================== -->
<h1 class="epydoc">Class Variable</h1><p class="nomargin-top"></p>
<pre class="base-tree">
object --+
         |
        <strong class="uidshort">Variable</strong>
</pre>

<hr />
<p>Variable(self, group, name, datatype, dimensions=(), zlib=False, 
  complevel=4, shuffle=True, fletcher32=False, contiguous=False, 
  chunksizes=None, endian='native', 
  least_significant_digit=None,fill_value=None)</p>
  <p>A netCDF <a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" 
  class="link">Variable</a> is used to read and write netCDF data.  They 
  are analagous to numpy array objects.</p>
  <p><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" class="link">Variable</a> 
  instances should be created using the <a 
  href="netCDF4.Dataset-class.html#createVariable" 
  class="link">createVariable</a> method of a <a 
  href="netCDF4.Dataset-class.html" class="link">Dataset</a> or <a 
  href="netCDF4.Group-class.html" class="link">Group</a> instance, not 
  using this class directly.</p>
  <p><b>Parameters:</b></p>
  <p><b><code>group</code></b> - <a href="netCDF4.Group-class.html" 
  class="link">Group</a> or <a href="netCDF4.Dataset-class.html" 
  class="link">Dataset</a> instance to associate with variable.</p>
  <p><b><code>name</code></b>  - Name of the variable.</p>
  <p><b><code>datatype</code></b> - <a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" 
  class="link">Variable</a> data type. Can be specified by providing a 
  numpy dtype object, or a string that describes a numpy dtype object. 
  Supported values, corresponding to <code>str</code> attribute of numpy 
  dtype objects, include <code>'f4'</code> (32-bit floating point), 
  <code>'f8'</code> (64-bit floating point), <code>'i4'</code> (32-bit 
  signed integer), <code>'i2'</code> (16-bit signed integer), 
  <code>'i8'</code> (64-bit singed integer), <code>'i4'</code> (8-bit 
  singed integer), <code>'i1'</code> (8-bit signed integer), 
  <code>'u1'</code> (8-bit unsigned integer), <code>'u2'</code> (16-bit 
  unsigned integer), <code>'u4'</code> (32-bit unsigned integer), 
  <code>'u8'</code> (64-bit unsigned integer), or <code>'S1'</code> 
  (single-character string).  From compatibility with Scientific.IO.NetCDF,
  the old Numeric single character typecodes can also be used 
  (<code>'f'</code> instead of <code>'f4'</code>, <code>'d'</code> instead 
  of <code>'f8'</code>, <code>'h'</code> or <code>'s'</code> instead of 
  <code>'i2'</code>, <code>'b'</code> or <code>'B'</code> instead of 
  <code>'i1'</code>, <code>'c'</code> instead of <code>'S1'</code>, and 
  <code>'i'</code> or <code>'l'</code> instead of <code>'i4'</code>). 
  <code>datatype</code> can also be a <a 
  href="netCDF4.CompoundType-class.html" class="link">CompoundType</a> 
  instance (for a structured, or compound array), a <a 
  href="netCDF4.VLType-class.html" class="link">VLType</a> instance (for a 
  variable-length array), or the python <code>str</code> builtin (for a 
  variable-length string array).</p>
  <p><b>Keywords:</b></p>
  <p><b><code>dimensions</code></b> - a tuple containing the variable's 
  dimension names (defined previously with <code>createDimension</code>). 
  Default is an empty tuple which means the variable is a scalar (and 
  therefore has no dimensions).</p>
  <p><b><code>zlib</code></b> - if <code>True</code>, data assigned to the 
  <a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" class="link">Variable</a> instance 
  is compressed on disk. Default <code>False</code>.</p>
  <p><b><code>complevel</code></b> - the level of zlib compression to use 
  (1 is the fastest, but poorest compression, 9 is the slowest but best 
  compression). Default 4. Ignored if <code>zlib=False</code>.</p>
  <p><b><code>shuffle</code></b> - if <code>True</code>, the HDF5 shuffle 
  filter is applied to improve compression. Default <code>True</code>. 
  Ignored if <code>zlib=False</code>.</p>
  <p><b><code>fletcher32</code></b> - if <code>True</code> (default 
  <code>False</code>), the Fletcher32 checksum algorithm is used for error 
  detection.</p>
  <p><b><code>contiguous</code></b> - if <code>True</code> (default 
  <code>False</code>), the variable data is stored contiguously on disk.  
  Default <code>False</code>. Setting to <code>True</code> for a variable 
  with an unlimited dimension will trigger an error.</p>
  <p><b><code>chunksizes</code></b> - Can be used to specify the HDF5 
  chunksizes for each dimension of the variable. A detailed discussion of 
  HDF chunking and I/O performance is available <a 
  href="http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/H5.user/Chunking.html" 
  target="_top">here</a>. Basically, you want the chunk size for each 
  dimension to match as closely as possible the size of the data block that
  users will read from the file. <code>chunksizes</code> cannot be set if 
  <code>contiguous=True</code>.</p>
  <p><b><code>endian</code></b> - Can be used to control whether the data 
  is stored in little or big endian format on disk. Possible values are 
  <code>little, big</code> or <code>native</code> (default). The library 
  will automatically handle endian conversions when the data is read, but 
  if the data is always going to be read on a computer with the opposite 
  format as the one used to create the file, there may be some performance 
  advantage to be gained by setting the endian-ness. For netCDF 3 files 
  (that don't use HDF5), only <code>endian='native'</code> is allowed.</p>
  <p>The <code>zlib, complevel, shuffle, fletcher32, contiguous</code> and 
  {chunksizes} keywords are silently ignored for netCDF 3 files that do not
  use HDF5.</p>
  <p><b><code>least_significant_digit</code></b> - If specified, variable 
  data will be truncated (quantized). In conjunction with 
  <code>zlib=True</code> this produces 'lossy', but significantly more 
  efficient compression. For example, if 
  <code>least_significant_digit=1</code>, data will be quantized using 
  around(scale*data)/scale, where scale = 2**bits, and bits is determined 
  so that a precision of 0.1 is retained (in this case bits=4). Default is 
  <code>None</code>, or no quantization.</p>
  <p><b><code>fill_value</code></b> - If specified, the default netCDF 
  <code>_FillValue</code> (the value that the variable gets filled with 
  before any data is written to it) is replaced with this value.  If 
  fill_value is set to <code>False</code>, then the variable is not 
  pre-filled. The default netCDF fill values can be found in 
  netCDF4.default_fillvals.</p>
  <p><b>Returns:</b></p>
  <p>a <a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" class="link">Variable</a> 
  instance.  All further operations on the netCDF Variable are accomplised 
  via <a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" class="link">Variable</a> 
  instance methods.</p>
  <p>A list of attribute names corresponding to netCDF attributes defined 
  for the variable can be obtained with the <code>ncattrs()</code> method. 
  These attributes can be created by assigning to an attribute of the <a 
  href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" class="link">Variable</a> instance. A 
  dictionary containing all the netCDF attribute name/value pairs is 
  provided by the <code>__dict__</code> attribute of a <a 
  href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" class="link">Variable</a> 
  instance.</p>
  <p>The instance variables <code>dimensions, dtype, ndim, shape</code> and
  <code>least_significant_digit</code> are read-only (and should not be 
  modified by the user).</p>

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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#__delattr__" class="summary-sig-name">__delattr__</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">...</span>)</span><br />
      x.__delattr__('name') &lt;==&gt; del x.name</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="__delitem__"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">__delitem__</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">x</span>,
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      del x[y]</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="__getattr__"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">__getattr__</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">...</span>)</span></td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#__getattribute__" class="summary-sig-name">__getattribute__</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">...</span>)</span><br />
      x.__getattribute__('name') &lt;==&gt; x.name</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="__getitem__"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">__getitem__</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">x</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">y</span>)</span><br />
      x[y]</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#__init__" class="summary-sig-name">__init__</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">group</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">name</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">datatype</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">dimensions</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">()</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">zlib</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">False</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">complevel</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">4</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">shuffle</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">True</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">fletcher32</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">False</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">contiguous</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">False</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">chunksizes</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">None</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">endian</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">'native'</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">least_significant_digit</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">None</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">fill_value</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">None</span>)</span><br />
      x.__init__(...) initializes x; see help(type(x)) for signature</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="__len__"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">__len__</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">x</span>)</span><br />
      len(x)</td>
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    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">a new object with type S, a subtype of T</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#__new__" class="summary-sig-name">__new__</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">T</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">S</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">...</span>)</span></td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#__setattr__" class="summary-sig-name">__setattr__</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">...</span>)</span><br />
      x.__setattr__('name', value) &lt;==&gt; x.name = value</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="__setitem__"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">__setitem__</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">x</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">i</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">y</span>)</span><br />
      x[i]=y</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#__str__" class="summary-sig-name">__str__</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">x</span>)</span><br />
      str(x)</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="__unicode__"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">__unicode__</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">...</span>)</span></td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#assignValue" class="summary-sig-name">assignValue</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">val</span>)</span><br />
      assign a value to a scalar variable.</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#chunking" class="summary-sig-name">chunking</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>)</span><br />
      return variable chunking information.</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#delncattr" class="summary-sig-name">delncattr</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">name</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">value</span>)</span><br />
      delete a netCDF variable attribute.</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="endian"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">endian</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>)</span><br />
      return endian-ness (little,big,native) of variable (as stored in HDF5
      file).</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="filters"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">filters</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>)</span><br />
      return dictionary containing HDF5 filter parameters.</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#getValue" class="summary-sig-name">getValue</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>)</span><br />
      get the value of a scalar variable.</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#get_var_chunk_cache" class="summary-sig-name">get_var_chunk_cache</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>)</span><br />
      return variable chunk cache information in a tuple 
      (size,nelems,preemption).</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#getncattr" class="summary-sig-name">getncattr</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">name</span>)</span><br />
      retrievel a netCDF variable attribute.</td>
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          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="group"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">group</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>)</span><br />
      return the group that this <a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" 
      class="link">Variable</a> is a member of.</td>
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    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
      <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr>
          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="ncattrs"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">ncattrs</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>)</span><br />
      return netCDF attribute names for this <a 
      href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" class="link">Variable</a> in a 
      list.</td>
          <td align="right" valign="top">
            
            
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
      <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr>
          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a name="renameAttribute"></a><span class="summary-sig-name">renameAttribute</span>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">oldname</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">newname</span>)</span><br />
      rename a <a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" 
      class="link">Variable</a> attribute named <code>oldname</code> to 
      <code>newname</code>.</td>
          <td align="right" valign="top">
            
            
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
      <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr>
          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#set_auto_maskandscale" class="summary-sig-name">set_auto_maskandscale</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">maskandscale</span>)</span><br />
      turn on or off automatic conversion of variable data to and from 
      masked arrays and automatic packing/unpacking of variable data using 
      <code>scale_factor</code> and <code>add_offset</code> attributes.</td>
          <td align="right" valign="top">
            
            
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
      <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr>
          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#set_var_chunk_cache" class="summary-sig-name">set_var_chunk_cache</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">size</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">None</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">nelems</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">None</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">preemption</span>=<span class="summary-sig-default">None</span>)</span><br />
      change variable chunk cache settings.</td>
          <td align="right" valign="top">
            
            
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
      <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr>
          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#setncattr" class="summary-sig-name">setncattr</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">name</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">value</span>)</span><br />
      set a netCDF variable attribute using name,value pair.</td>
          <td align="right" valign="top">
            
            
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
      <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
        <tr>
          <td><span class="summary-sig"><a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#setncatts" class="summary-sig-name">setncatts</a>(<span class="summary-sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="summary-sig-arg">attdict</span>)</span><br />
      set a bunch of netCDF variable attributes at once using a python 
      dictionary.</td>
          <td align="right" valign="top">
            
            
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td colspan="2" class="summary">
    <p class="indent-wrapped-lines"><b>Inherited from <code>object</code></b>:
      <code>__format__</code>,
      <code>__hash__</code>,
      <code>__reduce__</code>,
      <code>__reduce_ex__</code>,
      <code>__repr__</code>,
      <code>__sizeof__</code>,
      <code>__subclasshook__</code>
      </p>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<!-- ==================== INSTANCE VARIABLES ==================== -->
<a name="section-InstanceVariables"></a>
<table class="summary" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr bgcolor="#70b0f0" class="table-header">
  <td align="left" colspan="2" class="table-header">
    <span class="table-header">Instance Variables</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
        <a name="dimensions"></a><span class="summary-name">dimensions</span><br />
      A tuple containing the names of the dimensions associated with this 
      variable.
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
        <a name="dtype"></a><span class="summary-name">dtype</span><br />
      A numpy dtype object describing the variable's data type.
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
        <a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html#least_significant_digit" class="summary-name">least_significant_digit</a><br />
      Describes the power of ten of the smallest decimal place in the data 
      the contains a reliable value.
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
        <a name="ndim"></a><span class="summary-name">ndim</span><br />
      The number of variable dimensions.
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
        <a name="shape"></a><span class="summary-name">shape</span><br />
      a tuple describing the current size of all the variable's dimensions.
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<!-- ==================== PROPERTIES ==================== -->
<a name="section-Properties"></a>
<table class="summary" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr bgcolor="#70b0f0" class="table-header">
  <td align="left" colspan="2" class="table-header">
    <span class="table-header">Properties</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
        <a name="datatype"></a><span class="summary-name">datatype</span><br />
      numpy data type (for primitive data types) or VLType/CompoundType 
      instance (for compound or vlen data types)
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
        <a name="maskandscale"></a><span class="summary-name">maskandscale</span>
    </td>
  </tr>
<tr>
    <td width="15%" align="right" valign="top" class="summary">
      <span class="summary-type">&nbsp;</span>
    </td><td class="summary">
        <a name="size"></a><span class="summary-name">size</span><br />
      Return the number of stored elements.
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td colspan="2" class="summary">
    <p class="indent-wrapped-lines"><b>Inherited from <code>object</code></b>:
      <code>__class__</code>
      </p>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<!-- ==================== METHOD DETAILS ==================== -->
<a name="section-MethodDetails"></a>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr bgcolor="#70b0f0" class="table-header">
  <td align="left" colspan="2" class="table-header">
    <span class="table-header">Method Details</span></td>
</tr>
</table>
<a name="__delattr__"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">__delattr__</span>(<span class="sig-arg">...</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>x.__delattr__('name') &lt;==&gt; del x.name</p>
  <dl class="fields">
    <dt>Overrides:
        object.__delattr__
    </dt>
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="__getattribute__"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">__getattribute__</span>(<span class="sig-arg">...</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>x.__getattribute__('name') &lt;==&gt; x.name</p>
  <dl class="fields">
    <dt>Overrides:
        object.__getattribute__
    </dt>
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="__init__"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">__init__</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">group</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">name</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">datatype</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">dimensions</span>=<span class="sig-default">()</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">zlib</span>=<span class="sig-default">False</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">complevel</span>=<span class="sig-default">4</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">shuffle</span>=<span class="sig-default">True</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">fletcher32</span>=<span class="sig-default">False</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">contiguous</span>=<span class="sig-default">False</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">chunksizes</span>=<span class="sig-default">None</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">endian</span>=<span class="sig-default">'native'</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">least_significant_digit</span>=<span class="sig-default">None</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">fill_value</span>=<span class="sig-default">None</span>)</span>
    <br /><em class="fname">(Constructor)</em>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>x.__init__(...) initializes x; see help(type(x)) for signature</p>
  <dl class="fields">
    <dt>Overrides:
        object.__init__
    </dt>
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="__new__"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">__new__</span>(<span class="sig-arg">T</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">S</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">...</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  
  <dl class="fields">
    <dt>Returns: a new object with type S, a subtype of T</dt>
    <dt>Overrides:
        object.__new__
    </dt>
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="__setattr__"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">__setattr__</span>(<span class="sig-arg">...</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>x.__setattr__('name', value) &lt;==&gt; x.name = value</p>
  <dl class="fields">
    <dt>Overrides:
        object.__setattr__
    </dt>
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="__str__"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">__str__</span>(<span class="sig-arg">x</span>)</span>
    <br /><em class="fname">(Informal representation operator)</em>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>str(x)</p>
  <dl class="fields">
    <dt>Overrides:
        object.__str__
    </dt>
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="assignValue"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">assignValue</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">val</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>assign a value to a scalar variable.  Provided for compatibility with 
  Scientific.IO.NetCDF, can also be done by assigning to a slice ([:]).</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="chunking"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">chunking</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>return variable chunking information.  If the dataset is defined to be
  contiguous (and hence there is no chunking) the word 'contiguous' is 
  returned.  Otherwise, a sequence with the chunksize for each dimension is
  returned.</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="delncattr"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">delncattr</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">name</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">value</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>delete a netCDF variable attribute.  Only use if you need to delete a 
  netCDF attribute with the same name as one of the reserved python 
  attributes.</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="getValue"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">getValue</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>get the value of a scalar variable.  Provided for compatibility with 
  Scientific.IO.NetCDF, can also be done by slicing ([:]).</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="get_var_chunk_cache"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">get_var_chunk_cache</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>return variable chunk cache information in a tuple 
  (size,nelems,preemption). See netcdf C library documentation for 
  <code>nc_get_var_chunk_cache</code> for details.</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="getncattr"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">getncattr</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">name</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>retrievel a netCDF variable attribute.  Only use if you need to set a 
  netCDF attribute with the same name as one of the reserved python 
  attributes.</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="set_auto_maskandscale"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">set_auto_maskandscale</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">maskandscale</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>turn on or off automatic conversion of variable data to and from 
  masked arrays and automatic packing/unpacking of variable data using 
  <code>scale_factor</code> and <code>add_offset</code> attributes.</p>
  <p>If <code>maskandscale</code> is set to <code>True</code>, when data is
  read from a variable it is converted to a masked array if any of the 
  values are exactly equal to the either the netCDF _FillValue or the value
  specified by the missing_value variable attribute. The fill_value of the 
  masked array is set to the missing_value attribute (if it exists), 
  otherwise the netCDF _FillValue attribute (which has a default value for 
  each data type).  When data is written to a variable, the masked array is
  converted back to a regular numpy array by replacing all the masked 
  values by the fill_value of the masked array.</p>
  <p>If <code>maskandscale</code> is set to <code>True</code>, and the 
  variable has a <code>scale_factor</code> or an <code>add_offset</code> 
  attribute, then data read from that variable is unpacked using:</p>
<pre class="literalblock">
   data = self.scale_factor*data + self.add_offset
</pre>
  <p>When data is written to a variable it is packed using:</p>
<pre class="literalblock">
   data = (data - self.add_offset)/self.scale_factor
</pre>
  <p>If either scale_factor is present, but add_offset is missing, 
  add_offset is assumed zero.  If add_offset is present, but scale_factor 
  is missing, scale_factor is assumed to be one. For more information on 
  how <code>scale_factor</code> and <code>add_offset</code> can be used to 
  provide simple compression, see <a 
  href="http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/cdc/conventions/cdc_netcdf_standard.shtml" 
  target="_top">http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/cdc/conventions/cdc_netcdf_standard.shtml</a>.</p>
  <p>The default value of <code>maskandscale</code> is <code>True</code> 
  (automatic conversions are performed).</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="set_var_chunk_cache"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">set_var_chunk_cache</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">size</span>=<span class="sig-default">None</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">nelems</span>=<span class="sig-default">None</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">preemption</span>=<span class="sig-default">None</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>change variable chunk cache settings. See netcdf C library 
  documentation for <code>nc_set_var_chunk_cache</code> for details.</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="setncattr"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
  <tr valign="top"><td>
  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">setncattr</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">name</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">value</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>set a netCDF variable attribute using name,value pair.  Only use if 
  you need to set a netCDF attribute with the same name as one of the 
  reserved python attributes.</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<a name="setncatts"></a>
<div>
<table class="details" border="1" cellpadding="3"
       cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="white">
<tr><td>
  <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
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  <h3 class="epydoc"><span class="sig"><span class="sig-name">setncatts</span>(<span class="sig-arg">self</span>,
        <span class="sig-arg">attdict</span>)</span>
  </h3>
  </td><td align="right" valign="top"
    >&nbsp;
    </td>
  </tr></table>
  
  <p>set a bunch of netCDF variable attributes at once using a python 
  dictionary. This may be faster when setting a lot of attributes for a 
  NETCDF3 formatted file, since nc_redef/nc_enddef is not called in between
  setting each attribute</p>
  <dl class="fields">
  </dl>
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<a name="least_significant_digit"></a>
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  <h3 class="epydoc">least_significant_digit</h3>
  Describes the power of ten of the smallest decimal place in the data the 
  contains a reliable value.  Data is truncated to this decimal place when 
  it is assigned to the <a href="netCDF4.Variable-class.html" 
  class="link">Variable</a> instance. If <code>None</code>, the data is not
  truncated.
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